Introduction

Introduction

If the recent hard launch of the ATI Radeon X1900 series says anything, it is that the red team is back in the game. Not only has the Canadian chipmaker wrestled back the highly competitive top dog status in the graphics arena from NVIDIA, the ready supply of Radeon X1900 cards in retail has helped to restore its faltering image after a disastrous sequence of paper launches. It has been a good start to the year for ATI but hopefully, we will see continued innovation from both chipmakers as they goad each other to increase graphics processing technology.

A consequence of the introduction of the Radeon X1900 series seems to be the gradual obsolescence of the relatively new Radeon X1800 series. ATI has no plans to continue the Radeon X1800 series and it should die a natural death once stocks of these cards run out. The high cost of the powerful Radeon X1900 cards also means that there is now a gaping void in ATI's lineup. Beyond the Radeon X1600 XT, the next card up the price and performance ladder is the Radeon X1800 XL and they should still cost around US$350. This is a void that NVIDIA will ruthlessly exploit, especially with its cost effective GeForce 6800 GS and GeForce 7800 GT cards. For those of us who are not exactly loaded with cash, this upper mid-range segment looks very tempting indeed and with its attractive prices (dropping below US$300), the GeForce 7800 GT is an ideal candidate. Accordingly, our review today looks at an interesting, enhanced version of the GeForce 7800 GT from Palit - the Palit 7800GT Blitz.

The GeForce 7800 GT has been in the market for quite a while so we are seeing minor modifications to the standard design from various vendors. The Palit 7800GT Blitz is not only overclocked like so many of the 'special editions' offered by practically every vendor, it uses faster and more expensive DDR3 RAMs rated at 1.4ns. On paper it certainly looks like a very speedy GeForce 7800 GT and we'll think you will agree after looking at its impressive specifications below: